AN IMPENDING TRIAL 43 



the Biennial. The trainer's extensive and peculiar 

 knowledge of the animal which is under his care is 

 always, for him, ' a bit in hand ' ; and in reference to 

 the impending Derby of 1867, Porter is inclined to 

 think that he knew rather more than his critics. It 

 is necessary, sometimes, to re-state a hackneyed 

 truism, and this, to the subject of the present narra- 

 tive, appears to be an appropriate occasion for such 

 a repetition. 



Everything pointed to the certainty of an 

 important trial taking place at Kingsclere before 

 the unusually eventful day. There have been 

 Derbys won by horses which ran untried — there 

 will be occasion to discuss at least one such Derby 

 before these pages of Turf history are complete ; 

 but, what with the upsetting of all two-year-old 

 form in consequence of the best of the Baronet's 

 three going dead amiss, the daily improvement of 

 the yet unrestored pair, and Blue Gown's form in 

 relation to them, which had finally to be ascertained, 

 a determining trial was, of course, felt to be neces- 

 sary, and was duly arranged. Kingsclere and the 

 neighbourhood swarmed with touts. John Porter 

 never remembers to have been more beset by 

 members of the motley and unscrupulous fraternity 

 than he was then. It could not be said that the news 

 of the inevitable test got wind, because not a soul 

 save Sir Joseph Hawley, his trainer, and eventually, 

 just prior to its being brought off, the head lad, were 

 cognisant of the day and hour of the intended busi- 

 ness. But the touts had, with unsurprising saga- 



